Or maybe I shoud say a pre-written/pre-designed or predetermined curriculum? It seems to me that every time I look up information on homeschooling it's all about choosing and purchasing a curriculum. Is it necessary? Have any of you just designed your own?

What I've done is familiarize myself with the law, then the core standards at each grade level, and started to gather materials that I feel will keep my daughter on track with (or, realistically, ahead of) the standards. Maybe I just haven't reached the point where I can fit a curriculum into my plan? I don't know, I'm just starting to wonder if I'm going about this the wrong way. Reinventing the wheel.

Replies

hi karmea, nope not everyone uses a pre designed curr, and no its not necessary to use a certain curr.

and it sounds like your going about it the right way for you!! good job! how old is your daughter? what are you using doing?

i pick and choose and make my own for the kids, so many nice resourses now days to choose from. making unit studies are my favorite thing to do for the kids, i use those for science, bible, history, writing, reading etc

for math and english i use saxon math and rod and staff english depending on how old child is.

Hi! My daughter is just shy of three... are you laughing? Am I too early? :-) I just want to be well prepared so I'm not scrambling to catch up with her. This child is a bookaholic and knew all her letters at nineteen months old and could probably be reading already if I was more on the ball with her. I just don't want to hold her back further because I'm not prepared.

So we're not using anything now, really, just her books, and counting with marbles, trying to make every new experience into a learning one. Today she was using a tape measure to mark lumber for me :-) As far as planning a curriculum, I've found the Common Core State Standards to be really helpful. I'm not completely through them yet, but I'm using the document as an outline that I plan to fill with specifics as I go. I like the idea of unit studies, too. I'm looking forward to learning a lot here!

Quoting oredeb:

hi karmea, nope not everyone uses a pre designed curr, and no its not necessary to use a certain curr.

and it sounds like your going about it the right way for you!! good job! how old is your daughter? what are you using doing?

i pick and choose and make my own for the kids, so many nice resourses now days to choose from. making unit studies are my favorite thing to do for the kids, i use those for science, bible, history, writing, reading etc

for math and english i use saxon math and rod and staff english depending on how old child is.

We don't use a bought curriculum, but I do use a lot of resrouces that takes some of the planning out of it for me. DS follows a text book for math (DD did, but it wasn't working so I'm attempting other things now). We have something for science that is kind of planned, but I separated it out and added activities and decided how much they will complete each time we do science.

We kind of do it differently for each subject I guess. But I didn't buy a boxed curriculum and no one has given me any lesson plans, I just make it up after I decide which resources I'm using (which I decide based on what I want them to learn). I use allinonehomeschool.com to help with some plans and also teacherspayteachers.com which has a lot of lesson plans and ideas, many of them are free or inexpensive. Another one is lessonpathways.com that has a lot of lesson plans. So you can plan your curriculum, but pull lesson plans from elsewhere so you are not entirely reinventing the wheel ;)

We don't use a bought curriculum, but I do use a lot of resrouces that takes some of the planning out of it for me. DS follows a text book for math (DD did, but it wasn't working so I'm attempting other things now). We have something for science that is kind of planned, but I separated it out and added activities and decided how much they will complete each time we do science.

We kind of do it differently for each subject I guess. But I didn't buy a boxed curriculum and no one has given me any lesson plans, I just make it up after I decide which resources I'm using (which I decide based on what I want them to learn). I use allinonehomeschool.com to help with some plans and also teacherspayteachers.com which has a lot of lesson plans and ideas, many of them are free or inexpensive. Another one is lessonpathways.com that has a lot of lesson plans. So you can plan your curriculum, but pull lesson plans from elsewhere so you are not entirely reinventing the wheel ;)

Just my opinion about the Common Core...I have a lot of opinions about it...but just to start, I find them close to the bare bones (at least compared to what my state standards were before we started implementing CCSS). So definitely use them as a starting point-I have done that sometimes as well-but I wouldn't stop with those.

Some curriculum producers or distributers will offer a list of standards that the curriculum covers-you can also use these as a jumping off point. Just, if your DD is really far ahead, don't hold her back by sticking to the CCSS, I would definitely use a year ahead anyway and add to them if she can handle it. My sticking point for this is always the first thing I noticed when I was researching the CC for my masters degree..there are no money standards until 2nd grade. I think much younger children are ready to at least know names of coins/dollars. And in 2nd grade they are then supposed to know enough about money to be able to do word problems involving money.

So my advice is to feel free to use those to start, but don't only depend on those. Really trust yourself in knowing what your DD is capable of learning.

Quoting Karmea:

Hi! My daughter is just shy of three... are you laughing? Am I too early? :-) I just want to be well prepared so I'm not scrambling to catch up with her. This child is a bookaholic and knew all her letters at nineteen months old and could probably be reading already if I was more on the ball with her. I just don't want to hold her back further because I'm not prepared.

So we're not using anything now, really, just her books, and counting with marbles, trying to make every new experience into a learning one. Today she was using a tape measure to mark lumber for me :-) As far as planning a curriculum, I've found the Common Core State Standards to be really helpful. I'm not completely through them yet, but I'm using the document as an outline that I plan to fill with specifics as I go. I like the idea of unit studies, too. I'm looking forward to learning a lot here!

Quoting oredeb:

hi karmea, nope not everyone uses a pre designed curr, and no its not necessary to use a certain curr.

and it sounds like your going about it the right way for you!! good job! how old is your daughter? what are you using doing?

i pick and choose and make my own for the kids, so many nice resourses now days to choose from. making unit studies are my favorite thing to do for the kids, i use those for science, bible, history, writing, reading etc

for math and english i use saxon math and rod and staff english depending on how old child is.

Oh, no, I didn't say I intend to limit her to the core standards! I'm using the core standards for two things. First, as an outline. It's been a long time since I've been in school and I couldn't tell you the order subjects are typically presented, and I don't want to jump ahead too quickly because I've forgotten some foundational information. Second, I want to make sure she always exceeds the standards. I expect our choice to homeschool will be challenged from any number of angles, and I want to be able to prove our system works better than the alternatives.

Quoting TJandKarasMom:

Just my opinion about the Common Core...I have a lot of opinions about it...but just to start, I find them close to the bare bones (at least compared to what my state standards were before we started implementing CCSS). So definitely use them as a starting point-I have done that sometimes as well-but I wouldn't stop with those.

Some curriculum producers or distributers will offer a list of standards that the curriculum covers-you can also use these as a jumping off point. Just, if your DD is really far ahead, don't hold her back by sticking to the CCSS, I would definitely use a year ahead anyway and add to them if she can handle it. My sticking point for this is always the first thing I noticed when I was researching the CC for my masters degree..there are no money standards until 2nd grade. I think much younger children are ready to at least know names of coins/dollars. And in 2nd grade they are then supposed to know enough about money to be able to do word problems involving money.

So my advice is to feel free to use those to start, but don't only depend on those. Really trust yourself in knowing what your DD is capable of learning.

I didn't think you intended to limit her to the CCSS, I just didn't want you to limit yourself to only teaching those either. I just had to put my two cents in about the core and just wanted to point out they are very minimal.

I totally think it's fine to use those as a starting point, I just feel like you will be able to teach her much more than what is in the standards, and it sounds like that is a big reason for your choice to hs. But they are a good starting point and will help you know what to teach in what order. Just know that they are not all inclusive and you can do better :)

Quoting Karmea:

Oh, no, I didn't say I intend to limit her to the core standards! I'm using the core standards for two things. First, as an outline. It's been a long time since I've been in school and I couldn't tell you the order subjects are typically presented, and I don't want to jump ahead too quickly because I've forgotten some foundational information. Second, I want to make sure she always exceeds the standards. I expect our choice to homeschool will be challenged from any number of angles, and I want to be able to prove our system works better than the alternatives.

Quoting TJandKarasMom:

Just my opinion about the Common Core...I have a lot of opinions about it...but just to start, I find them close to the bare bones (at least compared to what my state standards were before we started implementing CCSS). So definitely use them as a starting point-I have done that sometimes as well-but I wouldn't stop with those.

Some curriculum producers or distributers will offer a list of standards that the curriculum covers-you can also use these as a jumping off point. Just, if your DD is really far ahead, don't hold her back by sticking to the CCSS, I would definitely use a year ahead anyway and add to them if she can handle it. My sticking point for this is always the first thing I noticed when I was researching the CC for my masters degree..there are no money standards until 2nd grade. I think much younger children are ready to at least know names of coins/dollars. And in 2nd grade they are then supposed to know enough about money to be able to do word problems involving money.

So my advice is to feel free to use those to start, but don't only depend on those. Really trust yourself in knowing what your DD is capable of learning.